Schmidt and attorneys general from 24 other states sent a letter to members of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation asking for passage of the HANGUP Act to protect consumers from unwanted debt-collection robocalls. Despite consumers’ concerns regarding these types of calls, Congress recently amended the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) to permit robocalls to consumers for debt collection purposes if the debt is owed to or guaranteed by the federal government. The HANGUP Act would restore the TCPA to its former language and return telephone privacy rights to consumers.

Each year the attorney general’s office receives thousands of complaints about unwanted telemarketing calls, with robocalls and debt collection calls reported in the largest group of those complaints.

“Either a debt-collection practice is legitimate or it is not,” Schmidt said. “The federal government should not have special permission to collect its debts through abusive robocalls that federal law prohibits private lenders from using.”